Gladiator Leads With 12 Oscar Nods

February 13 -- When Gladiator was released last May, few thought that the action-packed epic would stand a chance at the Oscars, but as 2000 waned, the revival of the long-dead sword-and-sandal genre suddenly looked like the leader of the pack.

Now, Gladiator commands the Oscar field with 12 nominations, including nods for Best Picture, Best Director (Ridley Scott), Best Actor (Russell Crowe), Best Supporting Actor (Joaquin Phoenix), best score (Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard), and best original screenplay (David Franzoni, John Logan, and William Nicholson).

Tiger Breaks More RecordsRight behind the Roman epic is critical favorite Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, with 10 nominations. This weekend, the Ang Lee-directed Mandarin-language fable surpassed Life Is Beautiful as the biggest-earning foreign film of all time, and now it's the most nominated foreign-language film in Oscar history. It's also the third film to be nominated in both the Best Picture category and the Best Foreign Language Film category in the same year (After Z in 1969 and Life Is Beautiful in 1998, both of which won in the foreign language film category).

Competing against these two epics for Best Picture honors are Chocolat, Erin Brockovich, and Traffic, which all boast five nominations each.

Soderbergh Competes Against HimselfSteven Soderbergh became only the second director to receive double nominations in one year. He is nominated for Erin Brockovich and Traffic, both of which received nods for Best Picture as well. The last director to earn double directorial nominations was Michael Curtiz, who pulled off that feat in 1938. Between 1950 and 1974, Academy rules prevented two directing nominations for one individual in the same year. In 1974, Francis Ford Coppola had two films up for Best Picture (The Godfather: Part II and The Conversation) but was nominated — and won — for Best Director for The Godfather: Part II only.

Contending with Soderbergh for Best Director are Crouching Tiger's Ang Lee (who won the Golden Globe in this category), Scott (Gladiator), and Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliot). Although Chocolat is up for Best Picture, director Lasse Hallström did not receive a directing nod, and Billy Elliot was overlooked in the Best Picture category.